


There Are Places Where Fears Can Touch You

by Haospart



Series: Saving the world sucks sometimes, but at least there's family [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Basically the Fade is a horrible ordeal for Rito, Panic Attacks, Rito has anxiety, The Fade, sibling trevelyans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:06:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26234617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haospart/pseuds/Haospart
Summary: The Fade is a mortifying ordeal for anyone.  But for Rito, the Nightmare knows his deepest secrets, better than even his sister.It doesn't hold anything back pushing his buttons, and he has so many of them.
Series: Saving the world sucks sometimes, but at least there's family [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885636
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	There Are Places Where Fears Can Touch You

**Author's Note:**

> Alta is owned by the DELIGHTFUL [sith_shenanigans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sith_shenanigans) , and is a PEACH for letting me post stuff about their precious bean whom I love and adore. Alta's the best.

The Nightmare was getting to him, latched onto his insecurities and fears and dug its claws in. And there were  _ so many  _ of those to hold onto. It seemed to take special interest in him, though whether that was simply because he was an easy target or because it distressed  _ Alta _ he’d never know. He’d tried covering his ears when it got too much, but the Nightmare had only to tug at another weakness to put a stop to that particular behavior. He couldn’t leave her to deal with the demon alone, abandon her to its taunting and whims.

She’d insisted that she was strong enough to withstand it, that he didn’t need to listen to the Nightmare if he couldn’t handle it anymore. He put his hands down, drew his arms in closer to his chest and gripped them with a painful strength, both to remind himself that he was still there, to ground himself, and to hold them down away from his ears. He wouldn’t abandon her to this. She shouldn’t have to bear it alone.

“Why not?” the demon asked, chuckling to itself, “Little Prince, you’ve done it before. You’re even doing it now. Oh it’s slow, you’ve made sure of that, but you’ll leave her behind again. To face the worst of her demons alone.”   
  
“Shut up,” he ground out, quietly, withdrawing further into himself miserably.

“Rito-” his sister beside him began, softly.

“A man so afraid of responsibility that he became a  _ thief _ . Little Prince, you’re a coward.”

Rito screwed up his courage, as beaten down as it was, and turned his face towards the sky, “I know you are, but what am I?”

A ridiculous retort, childish, but it had worked to great effect in the past at unbalancing adversaries in the past, that gave him time to reestablish his own mental strength.

“You’re  _ dying _ . And you know it,” for once the Nightmare’s voice didn’t hold a trace of amusement in it. It wasn’t a taunt, it wasn’t an insult or a jab.

It was the  _ truth _ , and Rito’s heart stopped for a moment at that. He stumbled over nothing, tripped over his own feet before tearing his wide eyes away from the sky. He held himself tighter, no doubt bruising his biceps with the force he used to try to steady himself.

“Running to the one place she’ll never be able to follow. It  _ will _ break her. You’d go to the ends of the earth for her, but you can’t even save yourself. You would die for her, Little Prince. And you  _ will _ . But it will kill her, too.”

He was working himself into a panic, Alta was saying something but he couldn’t hear it.   
  
“Your veins are dripping red, and it isn’t  _ blood _ now, is it? You found death a long time ago, it put a leash on you and you’re living on borrowed time. Never told anyone what you did? I could tell them now, save you the grief,” it hissed. 

He knew it was loud, but it sounded like it was whispered right in his ear, so much so that he could almost feel the breath on the back of his neck. He shuddered. Everything in him screamed to  _ run, get away, hide _ , and he was caught between what he wanted so  _ desperately _ to do, and what he knew he shouldn’t.

He whimpered. It was a small, high, distressed noise in the back of his throat. 

The Nightmare had him.

Something touched him, a firm grasp on his shoulder from behind, and he snapped. He bolted, wrenching out of the mystery grip and breaking into a sprint. He didn’t know where he was going,  _ away _ ,  _ forwards _ , something like that. 

It took a few moments to realize the Nightmare was  _ laughing _ , which only urged him forwards, faster.

“You abandon her so quickly, do you?”

He tripped, foot caught on a rock and he crashed to the ground. He rolled to a stop, though he didn’t stay down for long. Quickly, he scrambled to his feet and looked to the sky, shuffling in place and turning as he realized that there wasn’t anyone behind him anymore. There wasn’t anyone to watch his back.

“Pitiful how little it takes to get you to leave your sister behind. You’d leave her to me to save yourself. Cowardice is the least of your problems,” it chuckled. Its voice echoed between the rocks, between the everything.

“ _ No _ ,” Rito realized too late what he’d done. He turned in a small, tight circle, until he spotted Alta.  _ So far away _ , he’d run so far in such a short amount of time. And he’d been faster than her, outstripped her easily in his panic and took off like a frightened deer. Horror made its home on his face.

A groaning, cracking sound came from above, and he dared look to it. Stalactites, or whatever they were with the Fade’s nonexistent concept of  _ up  _ or  _ down _ , cracking at their bases and falling. Falling between him and the party, between him and  _ his sister _ .

He hardly got more than a few steps in, running again--though this time not away--before the spears of rock came down.

“ _ Alta! _ ” he called, before the crashing of rock drowned out his voice and sealed him off from every inkling of life that he’d had in the immaterial.

“No! Dammit! Damn it all,” he growled. He slid to a halt in front of the newly placed wall of rock and placed his hands on it, searching for some weakness or way through. It was too sheer of a face to climb, even for him, and if he couldn’t find a way  _ through _ then that would mean-

“You’re alone, Little Prince. You’re wasting time you don’t have looking for a way through."

Rito whirled, arms outstretched as he yelled to the sky, "Your input isn't  _ appreciated _ , Demon! Get out of my  _ head _ !"

A chuckle, reverberating around the newly established area, shook in his bones, "Would you rather I bothered your sister?"

"No! Leave her alone!" hysteria set in, and he fired off an arrow into the sky, a blistering red mist twisting off of it, "Keep your claws out of her head!"

" _ Still _ you work to protect her. Why? You're  _ alone _ ," the Nightmare asked, intrigued. Rito got the impression that it would have leaned forwards, down into his face if it had been in front of him.

"She's my sister. I  _ love _ her. And  _ you _ can't scare that out of me. You could tear me to pieces and I'd still do anything for her," he growled back, defiance settling in him. He was scared,  _ terrified _ honestly, but he had nothing else to hold onto now that he was alone. He'd hold to it.

"Love won't save her. And it won't save  _ you _ . You made a mistake, Little Prince," it laughed, full and malicious, entirely too amused with itself even as Rito braced for what was next, " _ Found you _ ."

_ Shit _ .  _ The arrow. _

The first fear, the first  _ spider _ crawled over a nearby rock and hissed at Rito. Followed by another. And another. And  _ more _ .

"Oh,  _ fuck me running _ ," he let out an anxious breath and began slowly, slowly backing away. Being  _ cornered _ would be a quick end to him, and he refused to die to a  _ spider _ of all things. Even if it was just a fear  _ shaped _ like a spider. 

He'd hardly gotten out of the corner before a fear lunged at him, and he barked out a sharp expletive before wheeling around and breaking into a run. He could hear the cacophonous clicks of exoskeleton feet behind him and sped up. He really hated the Fade.


End file.
